Dirk S Tepe at [log in to unmask] on 10/15/99 8:21 AM sent the following:

>At 2:08 AM -0400 10/15/99, Steven Schafersman wrote:

>>I had the same problem two years ago when I had to use dial-in. The Miami
>>PPP server software doesn't work reliably in the auto mode with FreePPP
>>(the Miami-provided "recommended" client). It often hangs up during the
>>user identity authentification. There are two solutions:
>
>I'm not sure whats meant by the 'Miami-provided "recommended"
>client'.  For the last couple of years, we've been recommending and
>providing OT/PPP.  We had too many problems with FreePPP that were
>well documented.  One of the biggest problems, which probably plays a
>part here, is that FreePPP tends to corrupt the user name and
>password data that it saves for it's "Direct" connection method.
>I've seen numerous times when the user name has garbage characters in
>it just looking at the configuration.
>
I remember vividly that two years ago MCIS was recommending ONLY FreePPP
as the PPP dial-in client for the Mac. I went through at least two
iterations of discussion with MCIS about the unreliability and frequent
failed authentications using FreePPP with the Miami PPP server (FreePPP
worked well with other PPP servers I connected to across the country!).
As Dirk states, the problem was that the Miami PPP server/FreePPP
combination corrupted the username and password during the auto (direct)
authentication dialog (I believe this is the server software's fault, not
FreePPP, but I am not sure). The ONLY solution that MCIS ever recommended
to me was to use the terminal window login option (which worked, although
it was inelegant). OpenTransport/PPP was NEVER mentioned suggested to me
as a solution, although it was available at the time. I finally decided
to try it on my own; it worked beautifully, and I have used it ever
since. I DID call MCIS back and mention to them how reliably OT/PPP
worked; perhaps that is why MCIS now recommends OT/PPP. I wasn't aware
that MCIS changed its recommendation, but I'm glad they have. I notice
that the MUnet CD 4.0 has OT/PPP on it. CD 2.0 had FreePPP. I don't
remember what CD 3.0 had last year.

Steven Schafersman
CyberComputing Consultants
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http://cybercomputing.com/